


Mari and the Ferocious Beast(s)

by orphan_account



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: And here we have fluff without plot fluff, F/M, Family Fluff, Madeline References, Marco is safe dad, Mari wears cowboy boots every day and is wonderful, Star is a literal queen, The OTP is canon all is right with the world, does it have a plot?, im a wastebasket, is it a plot?, it's fluff that looks like it has a plot, look for the fifth time it doesn't have an actual plot, no it's fluff, the fluff with no plot, this is anything but sin, this is not sin tho, this is what you get when cinnamon rolls do the nasty and we get a baby butterfly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 05:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5731252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mariposa Diaz learns about bravery and fear, and love and birth.<br/>Is there anything worth more than peace and love on the planet earth?</p><p>Sweet Starco Future Family Fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mari and the Ferocious Beast(s)

**Author's Note:**

> Mari calls Mr. And Mrs. Diaz, (Abuel)Ito and (Abuel)Ita just FYI.

Mariposa Angela Diaz was a very brave little girl.

When she was only four years old, four mind you, she had successfully balanced upon the walls of a certain bridge and scaled their length. Long walls, narrow walls, walls that spanned a good nine feet, eight inches, without one fear of tipping and falling into the murky depths of Echo Creek below. She had done it, she had been successful, and she was proud, even if Daddy had screamed in high-pitched horror and scolded her (lightly, very lightly) and she had gotten a hug, a high five, and a " _Please don't do it again though sweetheart, for Daddy's mental health can't take it"_ from Mommy.

To the great six headed dragon-chicken in the Mewnian zoo, Mari Diaz just said "boo.", which was something exceedingly brave considering he had swallowed Sir Glossaryck whole on more than one occasion and Mommy and Daddy had to rescue him.

She was even very brave before she could remember, when she had been so very small, just begun, really. When Mommy, brave brave Mommy, had said even she had been afraid. When little Mari had been born with a far too big hole in her far too small heart. Mari had been very brave they said, brave without knowing, and the doctors had worked endlessly, and Mommy in a state of near hysteria had worked endlessly too, even when Daddy had to hold her softly and tell her that some things could not be changed by magic. Mari thought perhaps both of them had been even braver than she, but they always assured her that was not the case.

"You held on Posa, with all your little might, and that was very very brave."

And all these things were a long time ago now, and Mari had grown bigger and stronger than anyone said she would, though she was still smaller than the others she knew, and she knew it would always be that way. And Mommy and Daddy had still said she was very strong, which made her proud, and made her confident, and made her brave.

But Mari Diaz did not feel very brave now, she felt very foolish. She was five and a half now, not five mind you, five and a half. She was five and a half and she was brave and strong, and she was a princess, and of all these things combined she knew that she should not be afraid of the dark.

She knew she shouldn't be, but that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't.

And she didn't wish to be a baby, and call for Ita. Ita had put a nightlight in her room already, Daddy's old nightlight, and if it was good enough for her very brave father, it was good enough for her. But night-lights were tricky things, for every inch of light they spread there was a dozen shadows behind it, and those shadows were very tricky things. It didn't help she supposed that this was Daddy's old room, where he had been sleeping when the monsters came to take him long ago. She had loved to hear that story, it was exciting and Mommy and Daddy told it so well from both sides, not as well as Uncle Yvegny but no one told a story as well as him. But hearing the story from the comforts of her room at home, and reliving the story in this strange strange shadowy place where it happened were two very different things. She shouldn't be afraid, but she was.

There were sounds too, tricky sounds, was that humming the air conditioner or some unseen fly monster ready to snatch her up? Was that the dripping of the faucet Ito had forgotten to turn off completely or the dripping of drool from the jaws of some vile five eyed creature? Was that the sound of a car outside, or a large sort of princess stealing automaton gargoyle, coming closer and closer and closer?

The sound of a door downstairs could be heard and all at once Mari Diaz was not very brave, for the dreadful horrible ferocious thing was coming into the house and was going to eat her alive like Uncle Glossy and Mommy and Daddy would not be there to rescue her.

"Daddy! Mommy!" it was a cry to be answered

Not one, but two decidedly not dreadful, horrible, ferocious, things (though it could be argued Star did get a little more frightening when Queenly business kept her up into the wee hours of the night, just to be fair, but now was not one of those times) came bounding up the staircase, two at a time it seemed and hastily tore open the bedroom door illuminating the room to find a very small lump of blankets with two very scared brilliant blue eyes peeking out.

"Mari! Honey are you okay? What's wrong? We come home to find you crying for us and we were so worried!"

In two moments Marco had pulled out of seemingly nowhere the emergency first aid kit and was checking the vitals of the dark haired child in Star's arms, while she cradled her softly and stroked her hair, if only to reassure herself that their precious baby butterfly was in one piece.

Mari didn't know whether to feel happy and relived to find her imagined monsters were merely her parents or dreadfully silly for acting so afraid, she decided to just take comfort in the fact that they were here now and she was safe.

"Posa, what happened? Why were you crying?"

"I-” she didn't want them to know that she had been scared, they were still under the false impression that she was a very brave little girl.

"Were you scared?" Star's eyes reflected her own and she knew lying to them was almost like lying to herself, which was cowardly, and something Daddy had said so often you should never do. He said it was one of the reasons he didn't catch on to his love for Mommy for so long.

"Yes," and suddenly she was up in wonderful hugs and warm kisses on her forehead and all those little things that just say love without even a word spoken.

"I'm sorry." And she was, very, her poor parents had tried so long, so hard, to raise a very brave daughter, and now here she was letting her fear get the better of her. She felt a few tears well up in her eyes, not from fear now, but from foolishness.

Two very perplexed parents shared a concerned look over the sniffling child's head and Marco spoke softly their shared thought.

"Posa, you don't have to be sorry for anything."

"But I do Daddy, you thought you had a very brave daughter, but you were wrong."

"Being unafraid is not what makes you brave Mari," Star turned to look her daughter in the eyes. "If that was true, then I am not brave either."

"But you are Mommy, you both are, you've done so much, so many exciting and dangerous things, and you said that Daddy was very brave and Daddy said that you were very brave. Lots of times."

"But that doesn't mean we weren't afraid. We were, well at least I was terrified." Marco admitted this sheepishly.

"We both were. But that isn't the point, the point of being brave isn't that you aren't afraid, the point is that even though you are afraid you don't let it stop you from doing what you need to do."

"But I did let it stop me! If I was brave like you and Daddy I would have gotten up and fought, or at least turned on the light or something, I didn't do anything I just called out for you like a baby."

"That was doing something though, what you needed to do right then was ask for help, that's something that can take people a long time to understand. It took me long enough. Because some problems you can't face alone and that's okay, because you shouldn't have to. You did what you needed to do, and that's all that matters."

The princess in arms pondered this for a few moments.  
"But what if there _had been_ monsters?"

"Not all monsters are bad you know." Star shared a smile with her husband "Daddy taught me that, we have lots of friend who are monsters, like your Uncle Yvegny."

"But what if it's a ferocious five eyed monster with dripping drool?"

"He's watering your Ita's cactuses, his drool has magic growing powers." Marco grinned mischievously at Star as he said it, hoping she would catch on.

"Or some hideous robotic gargoyle in my closet?"

"It's trying on your new cowboy boots and making sure they will be comfortably broken in for you when we go out tomorrow." Star had caught on and was enjoying this, laughter in her voice.

"What if it's a fly monster coming to kidnap me in exchange for your wand Mommy?"

And suddenly the laughter stopped.

Star and Marco looked very seriously at the result of their procreation, then at each other. Having supernaturally connected souls when you are married does come in handy, unless both of you are clueless as to what to say to the bombshell your daughter just dropped.

Marco looked around his old room for a moment. It shared very little resemblance anymore to how it had looked that night more than 15 years hence, but it was still the same room and it still brought up quite a few memories of it. The room had held many other memories since though, that he thought of far more often. Heck, this was the room where he and Star had first... well, that was a thought for a less family friendly fanfiction.

He heard his wife's voice speak up.

"That was a long time ago honey, and I promised myself I would never let it happen again."

"But it could!"

"No, no it won't. Marco and I defeated those monsters once and for all long before you were born. And I will never let anyone ever take you or him away from me like that again."

"Is it because it's this room Princess?" Marco spoke up suddenly himself "Is that what made you think of it?"

"Well, yes."

"Your mom had the same fear once. Only it wasn't for her own safety, it was for mine."

"She did?"

"Yes," Star admitted "I did."

"After it happened, I'd wake up for weeks afterwards and find her staked out at the end of my headboard, half asleep usually."

"But Mommy, you know what happens when you stay up too late."

"Yes I know, and it did. But you see I was still very afraid, I just didn't want to admit it to anyone, especially not Marco."

"Well to do something like that to watch over him was very brave." The little brown head nodded self assuredly.

"No, it was very silly, if I had been brave I would have just done what I needed to, which was talk to him about how I felt. But instead I got a case of exhaustion and became a real grump, almost ended our friendship right there."

"Eventually I figured out what she was doing and why."

"Well not _completely."_

"What do you mean?" Mari had not heard this side of the story. She settled farther into her mother's arms as they continued.

"He knew I was trying to protect him but he didn't completely catch on as to why yet."

"Not that you did either." her husband put in.

"We were both lying to ourselves, Marco."

"That's cowardly." Mari's little voice piped up matter-of-factly.

"Yes it was."

"But you do a lot of stupid cowardly things when you're in love." Star finished softly.

All was quiet in the room as small smiles were shared between two souls long united, and the soft breathing of the product of their love grew steady and calm. The sound of her tiny breaths, a beautiful miracle to her parents ever since those dreadful nights of fear, five and a half years before.

"I did something a little stupid tonight, does that mean I'm in love?" asked the little voice, slipping quickly closer to dreamland.

"A different kind of love, but yes, I think it does." Marco started to fix the bed again to a state of order and comfort as Star laid the drowsy little princess in her downy lagoon.

"But- I'm still brave?" Two gentle kisses to the forehead and Star making sure the closet light was turned on before they made their way towards the door.

"Definitely, love is the bravest thing of all."

And with soft goodnights, Mariposa Diaz, who was very very brave, and who held much love where the far too big hole had once been in her little heart, settled off to sleep.


End file.
